From the Web 2.25.14

Beginning today, thefabricator.com offers its Fab Top 5—links to items of interest to fabricators published on the Web in the previous week. Among today’s Top 5 are stories about women filling welding jobs in Louisiana, manufacturing hubs in Detroit and Chicago, and a change in the way today’s youth combine school and work.

1. Women are filling welding jobs in South Louisiana as the area bucks a national slide in the ranks of female manufacturing workers.

2. Two new private-public partnerships meant to spur high-quality manufacturing jobs in Chicago and Detroit are among the first of 45 such “institutes” the White House hopes to create.

3. Just one in three teens in the U.S. worked or looked for a job In January, a record low.

4. Originally built by GM in 1917, the American Axle & Manufacturing plant has been reduced to rubble.

5. Your company can make the news, both in print and online, by participating in the FAB 40, a ranking of the top 40 U.S. metal fabricating companies.